


First Footing

by Eggling



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Gen, hints of two/jamie, s4 fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 05:05:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10632822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggling/pseuds/Eggling
Summary: Two, Ben, Polly, Jamie, and the new year.





	

“'ey, when was the last time we had a whole day to ourselves like this, Doctor?”

The Doctor was silent for a long moment, tapping one finger against his lips thoughtfully. “You can't remember, can you?” Polly teased. “It's been so long.”

“No more than a month,” the Doctor protested, frowning when Ben laughed.

“Not since before Jamie joined us, surely,” Polly pressed on. “We ought to have a celebration. It's his first TARDIS holiday.”

“Have we no' just had one?” Jamie spoke up more to distract himself from the implication of that statement than out of genuine curiosity, but he could hardly avoid dwelling on it.

A month. A whole month of beasties and spaceships and having everything he thought he knew repeatedly pulled out from under him – and the Doctor there to catch him every time, re-orienting him, reshaping his world. A month since he had looked at a stretch of Scottish glen and thought _home_. A month since Culloden. Somehow, he had never felt further from it, even when his life was in danger from some new and terrible threat. Here, under a quiet, purple sky, the Doctor's figures of how very far away Scotland was suddenly seemed real.

And here he was, wandering along a winding road on an alien world, heading back from their celebration of the new year, the stars just visible through the twisted branches of the trees above, the Doctor's arm comfortably linked through his. There was something else that he struggled to explain or justify to himself. He did not dare examine his feelings too closely, almost frightened of what he already knew, deep down. But the Doctor had looked so cheerful that he did not have the heart to move away or push him off, and it was far too late now.

“Here we are!” the Doctor announced, releasing Jamie's arm, unlocking the TARDIS doors, then stepping back and gesturing to his companions. “In you go.”

Ben made as if to push the door open, and a sudden flash of panic made Jamie cry out. “Ben! Don't go in!”

The others turned to stare at him in astonishment and alarm. “Why not?” the Doctor asked incredulously. “What's the danger, Jamie?”

Jamie bit his lip, unable to meet any of their eyes, addressing the leaves on their ground instead. “It's... it's bad luck,” he said. “If a fair-haired man is first tae cross the threshold in the new year.

“Oh!” The Doctor's eyes widened in sudden comprehension. “Yes, of course, I was quite forgetting, Jamie!”

“Forgetting what?” Ben asked.

“Well, for Jamie, it's Hogmanay, isn't it?” Ben and Polly stared at the Doctor uncomprehendingly, but Jamie broke into a wide smile, pushing back the memories of last time, of dead friends, of a lone day of hope, of a happiness they would never feel again. “Who should go first, then, Jamie?”

“It's luckiest if it's a dark-haired young man.” Jamie winced, realising too late that it sounded as if he was suggesting himself. “But it's – well, just so long as -”

“So long as it's not Ben,” Polly finished with a giggle. “There you go, Ben, no wonder you weren't popular in Scotland.”

“Shall I, then?” the Doctor said cheerily.

Ben stared at him incredulously. “He did say _young_ , Doctor.”

The Doctor ignored him with an air of imperiousness that made Polly laugh and Jamie wonder how someone could be so English and so enthusiastic about a Hogmanay tradition at the same time. Pushing both doors open, the Doctor stepped deliberately over the threshold, gesturing for the others to follow. Polly stepped in after him, and the Doctor beckoned to Ben, but Polly caught his hands to still them.

“I don't know if we should let him in, Doctor,” she teased. “If it's bad luck.”

“Nonsense!” the Doctor said, trying and failing to stifle a chuckle. “In you come, Ben.”

He simply held out his hands to Jamie, and beamed when he took them and allowed to himself to be pulled inside. The doors closed behind him with a whirr. “Welcome home.” _Home_.

“Aye,” Jamie managed after a moment, a little breathless at the shock of it, at the Doctor's sudden proximity. “Aye. Home.”


End file.
